The world's craziest new hotels

JANE E FRASER

Last updated 11:10 13/12/2013

ReutersReutersChris McLennanReuters

Only a month after it sought insolvency protection in Dubai and Singapore to push through a $US2.2 billion ($NZD2.67 billion) debt restructuring, Drydocks World unveiled an agreement with BIG InvestConsult, which holds the technology rights to build the World Discus Hotel.

The two parts of the structure are connected by three solid legs and a vertical shaft containing a lift and stairway. The size of each disc has been adjusted to local conditions.

An artist's impression of the Water Discus Hotel, planned for Dubai and the Maldives.

The Water Discus Hotel.

The disc, located up to 10 metres beneath the surface of the sea, is composed of 21 hotel rooms adjacent to the underwater dive centre and a bar.

The hotel, featuring a discus-shaped residential underwater building connected to another discus above water, will be funded by BIG, which is in talks with other investors.

The disc, located up to 10 metres beneath the surface of the sea, is composed of 21 hotel rooms adjacent to the underwater dive centre and a bar.

If you prefer to keep your head above water, there are floating hotels coming online. Sunborn Yacht Hotels is preparing to launch a five-star "super yacht" hotel in Gibraltar, with further projects planned for Barcelona, London and further afield.

The 142-metre long yacht in Gibraltar will be permanently anchored in the Ocean Village Marina, with the Rock of Gibraltar as a backdrop.

Sunborn says while its yacht hotels have full propulsion, they are designed to be permanently moored.

The Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort on China's Lake Taihu has features including a "wedding island" for outdoor weddings and a "spa village" with five different spa experiences. The architects may not appreciate the description, but the 321-room hotel looks a bit like a squished donut.

The Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort on China's Lake Taihu has features including a "wedding island" for outdoor weddings and a "spa village" with five different spa experiences.

Competing for the award for craziest place to stay is a hotel shaped like a crooked picture frame, balanced on the edge of a cliff in Lima. It's yet to be approved, but the Unbalanced Hotel would be a landmark for the Peruvian capital.

One of the most ambitious projects under way is a resort being built at the bottom of a water-filled, abandoned quarry just outside Shanghai in China. The InterContinental Shimao Shanghai Wonderland Resort is on track to open in 2015, at a cost of about $125 million.

The quarry is at the base of Tianmenshan Mountain and is about 100 metres deep, with the resort's guestrooms built into the rock face and the water used for water sports and adventure activities.

The quarry is at the base of Tianmenshan Mountain and is about 100 metres deep, with the resort's guestrooms built into the rock face and the water used for water sports and adventure activities.

For soccer fans, next year will bring the opening of Hotel Football in Manchester, England, featuring a roof-top football pitch and football-themed interiors, so you can "eat, drink and sleep football".

The ONYX Hospitality Group says guests walking into the Amari Buriram United in Thailand will feel like they are arriving at a football ground, with most rooms looking into a central area with a mini football field and swimming pool.

If you think all hotels are the same, try staying in one of these wacky digs.

In a hole, under the sea, on the edge of a cliff... not places that generally come to mind as somewhere to bed down for the night.

But everything goes with a spate of novelty hotels coming online around the world, as architects and developers try to outdo each other with crazy designs and concepts.

One of the most ambitious projects under way is a resort being built at the bottom of a water-filled, abandoned quarry just outside Shanghai in China.

I did check if it was the first of April when I heard about it, but the hotel monitoring agency Top Hotel Projects says the InterContinental Shimao Shanghai Wonderland Resort is on track to open in 2015, at a cost of about €75 million (NZD$125 million).

The quarry is at the base of Tianmenshan Mountain and is about 100 metres deep, with the resort's guestrooms built into the rock face and the water used for water sports and adventure activities.

Competing for the award for craziest place to stay is a hotel shaped like a crooked picture frame, balanced on the edge of a cliff in Lima.

It's yet to be approved, but the Unbalanced Hotel would be a landmark for the Peruvian capital.

According to its creators, the Spanish firm OOIIO Architecture, the idea is that the scenery can be viewed through it, rather than being blocked out.

The picture frame plan follows the opening of a distinctive arch-shaped hotel on China's Lake Taihu.

The project is yet to be approved but Top Hotel Projects says work could start by the middle of next year, with the first of nine luxury hotels to open in 2018.

For soccer fans, next year will bring the opening of Hotel Football in Manchester, England, featuring a roof-top football pitch and football-themed interiors, so you can "eat, drink and sleep football".

Another football-themed hotel is planned for northern Thailand, of all places.

The ONYX Hospitality Group says guests walking into the Amari Buriram United will feel like they are arriving at a football ground, with most rooms looking into a central area with a mini football field and swimming pool.

Inside the hotel, which is open for bookings from December, will be "players changing room"-style bathrooms and a themed restaurant with bench seating for "team style dining".

Those who prefer fashion to footy can celebrate a batch of fashion-aligned hotels opening around the world.

Versace is opening a Greco-Roman style Palazzo Versace in Dubai next year, more than a decade after launching Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast.

Armani Hotels is expected to open a hotel at Admiralty Arch in London in 2015, while Bulgari Hotels will open a property in Shanghai and the LVMH group is working on classy hideaways in the Maldives, Egypt, Oman and Paris.